Owner of Australian mobile coffee cart business Cafe in a Box, Michael Wilcocks, has said: "For every $1 I spend on Google AdWords I've received at least $50 in sales. It's been the best investment I've made. My customer base has grown 85% due to online advertising."

Sound good? We think so.

At Google, we want to help propel the Australian digital economy. Encouraging more Australian businesses to connect with customers online is a major part of that vision.

In the current economic climate, more Australians than ever before are heading online to research products and services, with search engines central to online navigation, research and comparison shopping.

We're today announcing a business stimulus offer, to help Australia's 1.88m small and medium-sized enterprises speed up in the economic slowdown. We're offering a free $75 search marketing campaign, to help Australian businesses reach new customers and drive sales.

Thousands of businesses are already embracing the benefits of measurable, cost-effective and targeted advertising programs such as Google AdWords. Those who have not yet dipped their toes in the AdWords water can take advantage of our $75 stimulus offer at google.com.au/stimulus.

Even if you're a small business that doesn't have an e-commerce platform on your site, you can benefit from this offer. Research shows that many Australians are doing their research online and then heading in-store to buy - for example, Monash's Australian Centre for Retail Studies has found that 50 per cent of Australian shoppers research their retail purchases online before they get to the store to buy.

For existing AdWords advertisers, we're offering two special master classes to help you improve the performance of your search marketing campaigns. A select number of existing advertisers that attend the seminars will receive a free, tailored campaign "optimisation" from a Google expert to drive better results and increased sales.

We hope lots of Australian small businesses will take up today's offer and learn how easy it is to use the web to grow their businesses.